The New Girl
by stephmcx
Summary: It was getting late, and Quinn should probably finish her beer and leave. Only she was having more fun and felt much more comfortable than she had in a long while. How had she gotten involved with this crazy bunch of people? (Quinn Liu POV)


It was getting late, and Quinn should probably finish her beer and leave. Only she was having more fun and felt much more comfortable than she had in a long while. She stood next to Adam at the makeshift buffet in Steve's backyard; together they were finishing off the last remaining potato chips, and she took a look around. How had she gotten involved with this crazy bunch of people?

She'd heard of the Five-0 task force, of course she had, they had an impressive reputation. Being granted immunity and means by the Governor of Hawaii made them dangerous and kind of untouchable. The rumours she'd heard about them were wild, massively exaggerated with every re-telling, she was sure of it.

But when she had first met them, mid-action on the job, she'd gotten a good understanding of where their badass image came from. They had been nothing but professional, fiercely determined and unrelenting until the job was done. She had no doubt about how menacing they could be if they set their mind to it.

This evening though, like the other day at the food truck, she found it so much harder to match that image to these laid-back people, who had invited her like it was the most natural and obvious thing. Who had welcomed her into their midst, who were talking so openly about their private stuff in front of her, without ever letting her feel like she was expected to share. Who were bantering and making fun of each other in this weird affectionate way.

Like right now.

"Hey, be gentle with your man, he's got a head injury," Lou called, repeating Tani's earlier words back at her. Quinn looked up from her conversation with Adam and saw that Tani had pulled Junior out of his chair and had started shoving him towards the house, almost manhandling him.

Quinn tried to hide her smile, those two seemed an unlikely pair. But she wasn't exactly an expert in love herself, so what did she know?

"That's what I'm trying to tell him," Tani yelled back, turning around to face Lou. "He won't listen! Be my guest and try—"

Whatever she'd wanted to say was cut short by a surprised squeal. Junior had used her distraction to wrap both his arms around her from behind, trapping her. They were both laughing now and Junior turned them both around, kind of frogmarching her back to the house.

"G'night," he yelled over his shoulder without looking back.

"Yeah, yeah, young love," Lou sing-songed, adressing no one in particular but speaking loud enough that everyone would hear.

Quinn felt her smile finally break through at that comment, before she remembered where she was and who she was with. She cast a careful look around, trying to gauge everybody's reaction to what had just happened. To her astonishment, no one seemed much surprised or conflicted about it and for a moment she wondered if all this was just teasing, maybe she got it wrong after all?

Because in her world, there were rules and fraternization policies and you had to be careful—but here, no one seemed to care about that. Instead of being discouraging, or maybe just so condoning a workplace relationship, this was a team being openly supportive of it—what the hell?

She thought about asking Adam for a hint about Tani and Junior's relationship status, but when she turned back to him, there was a wistful expression on his face. She couldn't quite place it, it was a hint of regret in his eyes, something like longing close to the surface and it kept her from actually speaking up.

She was often told that she was too straightforward, and right now, she didn't want to be tactless by asking inappropriate questions. Not after she'd been welcomed so warmly and no one even tried to ask her anything personal.

Quinn took a sip of her beer and wrecked her brain for another, safer topic. Of all of Five-0 Adam was the one she had gotten the least amount of intel on. She had checked them up, of course, after their first run-in. She'd ran background checks on the whole team, and she hadn't been surprised about the vitas she had found. All of them had outstanding records and a history either in the military or the police or, in Junior's case, even both. All of them—except for Adam.

"How long have you been part of Five-0?" she finally settled on, because that question seemed innocuous enough. She hoped.

"Not that long, actually," Adam said, and to Quinn's relief, his thoughtful expression dissolved into a smile when he looked at her. "Steve and Danny asked me to join the task force about a year ago."

"So you're the newest hire?"

"Yeah, I am," he said. "But my history with Five-0 dates back a couple more years."

"How—" Quinn started to say, but then "Oh!"

She'd just made the connection. She'd known Adam's last name was familiar, she'd even recognized it to be the name of a family that was said to have ties with the Yakuza, but all along she'd thought it was purely coincidence. Now it dawned on her.

"So… you _are_ one of the infamous Noshimuri family?"

"Hiro Noshimuri was my father," Adam said, and Quinn shook her head at herself. So much for innocuous questions.

"I'm sorry, I—"

"No, it's okay," he interrupted her. "Really. I'd rather people know the truth than spreading rumours, you know?"

"So you switched sides? How did you come to join Five-0?" she asked, not able to hold her curiosity after that revelation.

"It's a complicated story," Adam said with a sigh. His smile had disappeared again, but he didn't look as thoughtful as before. "Let's just say that it was a generous offer to start over."

"Fair enough," Quinn said, but she did notice the way he stole a glance at McGarrett.

It was all the confirmation she needed that it _was_ a complicated story. And it seemed like Five-0 was full of those, if the tidbits and scraps of information she'd picked up tonight were anything to go by. Half the time she wasn't sure what to believe and if they were setting her up.

Like the thing with the bomb in Steve's garage. They were all acting so nonchalant about it, as if personal death-threats were a regular occurrence to them. When she had mentioned the thought out loud, she had earned some amused chuckles, and then Danny had launched into a story of how last year, shortly before Christmas, Steve had been attacked by a hitman in his own kitchen.

And really, what were the odds of being targeted by a hitman and having a bomb placed in your house in under a year? She wouldn't have been convinced it was true if the others hadn't jumped in and added some of their own memories of that case.

"This guy is a trouble magnet," Danny had said, waving a hand in Steve's direction. "He's attracted to danger like a moth to the flame. You work with him and death-threats _are_ a regular occurence. Kidnappings, black ops, serial killers, dirty bombs— oh! Ask him about the dirty bomb! I've still got nightmares! He's taken years off my life, let me tell you."

Steve had mostly ignored the rant Danny had talked himself into. He'd just rolled his eyes, checked the grill and then had interrupted Danny rudely by announcing that the burgers were ready.

Quinn was shaken out of her thoughts when Tani reappeared, positioning herself at the other side of the table from Adam and her. She grinned at them, opened three fresh bottles of beer and handed them over unasked for.

"Thanks," Quinn took the offered bottle and busied herself with emptying the old one.

"You're not staying?" Adam took his beer from Tani and pointed the bottle towards the house.

"Nah, Junes needs his beauty sleep," Tani said and took a drink of her own beer. Then she leaned in a bit, lowered her voice conspirationally and continued, "Besides, staying here is like you are 15 and you stay at your boyfriend's house for the first time and his parents sleep next door. It's awkward." She wrinkled her nose in an amused way and gave a slight nod with her head towards where Steve and Danny and Lou were talking.

Quinn watched Adam's eyes widen comically when he looked at them, then he burst out laughing.

Not quite getting the implication, Quinn looked from Adam to Tani to the men at the other end of the garden and let her eyes linger on the trio for a moment. Danny was still sprawled in his chair, like he'd been most of the evening. Steve was standing behind him, one hand clapped on Danny's shoulder and he was talking to Lou, who was sitting next to Danny in the chair Quinn had occupied earlier.

She didn't get it.

"It gets awkward when Danny stays over," Tani told her. "Like those two weeks we had to spend in quarantine with them."

It still took Quinn several long moments to catch on, why would Danny stay here and—no way!

No way did Tani mean what Quinn thought she meant. Only it made complete sense all of a sudden. Because Steve's hand was still resting on Danny's shoulder and it didn't really look like he intended to pull it back. The affectionate look Danny just threw up at him belied his gruff words from earlier, or rather it emphasized the worry he'd hidden beneath the harsh tone he'd used.

"You can't be serious," Quinn said as she turned back. Tani and Adam exchanged a knowing look and Tani just grinned at her and that was answer enough.

"Cool," Quinn said sincerely, because it was.

They stood there in silence for a moment, nursing their beers.

"So, quarantine?" Quinn prompted, expecting another wild and improbable story and she wasn't disappointed. Tani told her about finding a boat full of dead bodies, catching an unknown virus, a desperate chase for the antidote, a storm and nearly losing the antidote in the ocean. Quinn shuddered and noticed she'd gotten goosebumps all over. This was downright thriller material.

"But the worst of it was not the fear of certain death," Tani said dramatically. "It was being trapped in quarantine with three dudes for two weeks."

"I'm sure it was," Adam said with a sly smile, and after a meaningful pause he continued for her "but then Danny was shot."

"Right!" Tani agreed. "And then Danny got shot. On our last day at the hospital, while we were still kept in quarantine. Steve nearly lost it, I've never seen him so agitated, believe me. And then—" Tani took a deep breath for effect. "Then he had to perform surgery on Danny—"

"What?" was all Quinn managed to say, but she had to say something, this story got more absurd by the minute.

So, really, how had she gotten involved with this crazy bunch of people?


End file.
